英国汉学家修中诚的《大学》《中庸》英译

E.R.Hughes and His Translation of The Great Learning and The Doctrine of Mean

英国汉学家修中诚(Ernest Richard Hughes,1883—1956)借助西方文化的资源,从形而上学的角度对《大学》和《中庸》做出哲学的诠释和翻译,保证了中国古典思想作为哲学被西方读者接受和理解。修氏还能够发现并在译文中维护中西哲学的一些差异,在一定程度上实现了交际效果与忠实程度的平衡。但是,在中国哲学西传的初期,这种平衡具有明显的历史局限性,对文化相似性的关注远超对文化差异性的强调,所以,以西方哲学传统为参照对《大学》《中庸》的译解,使这两部作品变得更像西方的哲学著作。

The British Sinologist Ernest Richard Hughes(1883—1956),with the help of the resources of Western culture,interpreted and translated the philosophy of The Great Learning and The Doctrine of Mean from a metaphysical point of view,which ensured that the Chinese classical thought was accepted and understood by Western readers as philosophy.Hughes also retained some of the peculiarities of Chinese philosophy,achieving a delicate balance of faithfulness and readability.However,in the early stage of the spread of Chinese philosophy to the West,this balance had obvious historical limitations,and the focus on cultural similarity was far more than the emphasis on cultural difference.Therefore,the translation of The Great Learning and The Doctrine of Mean with the reference to Western philosophical tradition made the two works more like western philosophical works.